Hundreds of young Africans began a five-day conference in the Senegalese capital Dakar on Monday focusing on the “time bomb” of youth unemployment across the continent.

Africa is one of the world’s youngest and fastest-growing regions but growing joblessness has become a major threat to prosperity, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Alioune Gueye, head of the Network of Youth Leaders of Africa and the Diaspora, which organised the event, said “nothing is more tragic” than seeing parents educate their children only to watch them fail to find jobs.

“This is a time bomb that must be defused,” Gueye said as he opened the fourth Pan-African Youth Leadership Summit, co-organised by the United Nations, which this year will tackle youth unemployment.

The UN estimates that 20 percent of Africans — around 200 million people — are aged 15 to 24, with the youth population expected to double by 2045.

Africa’s economy is projected to grow by 5.3 percent in 2014, according to the 2013 African Economic Outlook, an annual report produced by the AfDB, UN Development Programme and other groups.

But growth is not translating into jobs for the young people who make up 60 percent of the unemployed or underemployed in Africa, the report says.

Recent estimates by the AfDB based on household surveys across sub-Saharan Africa and data from the International Labour Organization find that youth unemployment stands around 34 percent.

“Unemployed young people are a threat to the stability of our countries,” Gueye said.

He told AFP after his address that “when a young person isn’t working, he has to rely on his family. He wants to start a family but cannot do so. He becomes embittered and can fall into organised crime or terrorism.”